The Hebrew faith was very physical. Unlike the ancient Greeks, they saw every part of a person as having some connection to their body. The heart is the centre of your emotions and desires. Your spirit is your breath, or the wind. Your soul is your throat. People who bring good news have beautiful feet. Your life is in your blood.

When Jesus was moved with compassion he wasn’t merely sympathetic for people, he was gutted. Really gutted.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

The Greek word they used meaning ‘moved with compassion’ is esplanchnisthē, to be moved in the splanxna, the inward parts.